Jaipur: The police in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on Sunday sealed a hotel and arrested its owner over rumours that beef was cooked there and remains of the meat were disposed of in the open.

According to a report in The Indian Express, police arrested owner Naeem Rabbani and one of his employees after Gau Raksha Dal leader Kamal Didi filed a complaint against his restaurant, Hotel Hayat Rabbani, in Jaipur’s Sindhi Camp area.

The rumours that the restaurant prepared beef were, however, baseless, police said.

“The actual matter is that locals were unhappy over the ‘non-vegetarian’ remains that the hotel threw openly; cows were consuming these remains which angered the locals,” Jaipur (West) Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ashok Kumar Gupta said.

Gupta said that the duo were arrested under section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code.

The municipal corporation has sealed the hotel as the owner failed to “produce a licence to operate” restaurant.